Puffin by Design by Phil Baines

 

Penguin and Puffin books have been celebrating their 80th anniversary this year, and this lovely little book is a tribute to the design of the Puffin Books range over the years. There’s also a Penguin by Design book, but this one is probably the more evocative, because it deals with books that will jog childhood memories. The book is mostly arranged chronologically, and so there’s great pleasure to be had in flipping through and seeing how book design has evolved over 80 years – especially book design for kids, which has the most judgmental audience, but also the most appreciative when done right. Sure, it’s the guilty pleasure of judging books by their covers, but it’s a small guilt. Many of these books will be recognisable, either from personal ownership, or in many people’s cases, from school libraries that retained aged books for differing reasons. Some are particularly amusing, like the seventies or eighties books with photographic covers, revealing bad fashions of the time, and some are simply classic, like Quentin Blake’s illustrated covers for Roald Dahl books. The casual browser will be well entertained by this comprehensive volume, while anyone with an interest in design will probably enjoy every page. [Ryan Agee]